Toy given to British boy by Joseph Stalin at a wartime conference emerges

Toy given to British boy by Joseph Stalin at a wartime conference emerges

A WOODEN toy given to a British boy by Joseph Stalin at a wartime conference with Winston Churchill has emerged.

Published: 18:01, Thu, April 10, 2014

The model of Grandfather Frost was the centre piece at the historic conference[BNPS]

The sturdy object of Grandfather Frost - the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus - formed a bizarre centrepiece at a banquet at the 1945 Yalta Conference.

The meeting between Stalin, Churchill, and US president Franklin Roosevelt decided how Germany and Eastern Europe was to be broken up following the Second World War.

It was decided Russia would take administrative control of Poland and went on to form the 'Iron Curtain'.

Valentine Lawford, a senior diplomat who travelled with Churchill, spotted the 1ft tall toy on the table and had the audacity to ask Stalin if he could have it for his young nephew.

Stalin - whose evil regime after the war is said to have killed over 10 million people - agreed Mr Lawford could take it after the conference.

The diplomat gave it to five-year-old John Findlater who has kept it ever since, more recently in his upstairs loo of his home in Reading, Berks.

He took it along to a recent Antiques Roadshow event at Polesden Lacy, Surrey, where it was given the once over by presenter Fiona Bruce.

Mr Findlater, a 74-year-old retired stockbroker, said: "The Grandfather Frost was the centrepiece for a large banquet at the conference that my uncle was at.

"He asked Stalin afterwards whether he could have it to give to his nephew and Stalin said 'yes'.

"I don't remember him giving to me but I recall him telling me the story.

"He said Stalin was, to all intents and purposes, fairly genial, but behind the geniality of course he was an appalling man who became one of the world's most evil dictators.

"I suppose it showed him up in a good light, and after all, he was after territory all the time anyway.

"I used to play with it a lot and I looked after him quite well.

"It was very much a Soviet-creation and wasn't brilliantly made.

"I have had it ever since and after we moved into our current house over 20 years ago my wife Victoria decided to put it in the upstairs loo and it has remained there ever since."

In the show that is due to be broadcast this Sunday, Fiona Bruce said: "It is interesting to think about Stalin giving you a present, in amongst all these momentous decisions being taken." "He said Stalin was, to all intents and purposes, fairly genial, but behind the geniality of course he was an appalling man who became one of the world's most evil dictators.

"I suppose it showed him up in a good light, and after all, he was after territory all the time anyway.

"I used to play with it a lot and I lookd after him quite well.

"It was very much a Soviet-creation and wasn't brilliantly made.

"I have had it ever since and after we moved into our current house over 20 years ago my wife Victoria decided to put it in the upstairs loo and it has remained there ever since." In the show that is due to be broadcast this Sunday, Fiona Bruce said: "It is interesting to think about Stalin giving you a present, in amongst all these momentous decisions being taken."